We’d probably be better off as a country if the government closed the smelter and paid the current smelter workers their salaries for the rest of their lives. That’s how bad this corporate junkie is addicted to taxpayer subsidies. But instead of cutting the dependency cord the government is widening it with more taxpayer sustenance.

Think: Warner Bros. Think: corporate blackmail to shift ‘The Hobbit’ overseas. Think: National not wanting to risk the wrath of Peter Jackson and a thoroughly manipulated Public Opinion. Think: National looking at the 2011 election. Think: panic amongst National ministers and back-room Party strategists.

Think: Warner Bros. Think: corporate blackmail to shift ‘The Hobbit’ overseas. Think: National not wanting to risk the wrath of Peter Jackson and a thoroughly manipulated Public Opinion. Think: National looking at the 2011 election. Think: panic amongst National ministers and back-room Party strategists.

Once a month the ‘3rd Degree’ bromide bromance of the cherubic sledgehammer Duncan Garner and the wiry, waspish Guyon Espiner will be replaced by a studio audience debate format with Linda Clark as the duo’s chaperone.

When Shearer’s greatest cheerleaders are Fran O’Sullivan, David Farrar and one of the architects of the media manufactured leadership crisis, John Armstrong, it’s no wonder left wing and progressive voters aren’t throwing their support behind Labour in any real way. With friends like these who needs cancer?